The youthful Gold Coast Suns’ debut season in the AFL was always going to be a curious experiment. Personally I was fearing the worst but maybe that’s the pessimist in me, although I’ll point out I wasn’t one of those stating they wouldn’t win a game in 2011.
However, due to the unprecedented nature of the Suns approach to their debut season (with a huge chunk of their team being rookies or teenagers), there was an air of trepidation about this team.
I’m sure some of the bigwigs at AFL House might have been feeling a bit concerned too after the Suns’ first three results were defeats to the tune of 119, 71 and 90 points respectively.
However, Gold Coast have shown more than enough by the halfway mark of 2011 to have plenty of people concerned about how good they will be in a few years time, rather than how bad they can be right now.
That’s exactly the image the AFL and the Suns management would have been hoping to purport.
However, it’s funny that the side who are sitting bottom of the ladder and have copped seven 50-point plus thrashings could be viewed that way. But with so much young talent, headlined by David Swallow, Zac Smith and Brandon Matera, they appear to have so much upside.
In fact, looking through the Herald Sun and The Age‘s mid-season reviews this week, they had few negatives to say about the Suns.
Remember when skipper Gary Ablett Jnr was copping it left, right and centre for socialising too much and staying in Melbourne after a game.
“Ablett has shown leadership and outstanding form,” wrote Scott Gullan in his snippet on Gold Coast in the Herald Sun‘s mid-season report card.
It’s funny how perceptions change.
And it’ll be interesting to see if that perception changes again as this youthful squad begins to tire and fatigue in what is the majority of the team’s debut AFL seasons.
Two wins at the halfway point isn’t too bad, despite the heavy defeats.
The obvious issue for Gold Coast is playing four quarters of consistency footy.
However when they’ve clicked they’ve shown glimpses of their potential and that’s what’s frightening other teams, along with the fact they appear to have made plenty of improvements since their debut game in Round Two.
If they continue to improve along this rate than the sky is the limit in a few years time. But, as Melbourne’s current example shows along with young St Kilda and Geelong teams early last decade, it’s not always so simple.
The expectations on Gold Coast’s shoulders will inevitably rise, but so far, the perception is they are doing better than par.